Honoring local heroes in Rochester

Saturday

Nov 29, 2008 at 3:15 AMNov 29, 2008 at 4:57 AM

By JOEY CRESTA

ROCHESTER — Make-A-Wish children recently showed their thanks to Lilac City firefighters— and got a VIP ride through downtown in the department's newest fire truck — by visiting the fire department as part of the celebration of Honor Heroes Day.

Barbara "Babz" Laroche, 16, of Barrington, and Teagan House, 8, of Rochester, gave thanks to Rochester firefighters as part of a plan organized by the New Hampshire Credit Union League (NHCUL) and the Make-A-Wish Foundation to honor firefighters throughout the state for all they do.

Babz and Teagan presented firefighters with a raffle calender, which the Foundation will be selling this year for $25 each and gives buyers a chance to win a prize every day of the year for 2009.

Danielle Lyczak, Holy Rosary Credit Union Director of Marketing, said they typically sell paper angels, but this year decided to do something different and went with the raffle calendars.

As part of their visit to the Wakefield Street station, Babz and Teagan were given a ride-along in the station's newest fire truck equipped with a 100-foot tower with bucket. This was Teagan's third year visiting Rochester's firefighters, but even this event was new to him.

"They're the first civilians to have a ride in the new truck, and they enjoyed that," Chief Norm Sanborn said.

Babz and Teagan are affiliated with Make-A-Wish due to their chronic illnesses. Babz has chronic renal failure, according to her mother, Robin Laroche, and had a kidney transplant failure when she was 13 and is now on dialysis three times a week. She is on the inactive list for another kidney transplant, and after accruing enough points may try a transplant again.

Despite her ailment, Robin said Babz manages to attend school — she is a junior at Dover High School — and even has her license.

Babz's dream is to become a race car driver, which Babz says she "knows will never happen" but "it's good to dream." She hopes to go to college for sports marketing so she can get involved in racing in some way.

As part of the Make-A-Wish program, Babz and her family attended the All-Star Race in Charlotte, N.C., in May 2007. Babz said she got to meet Matt Kenseth, who drives car #17 and is her favorite driver.

Teagan suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a severe form of dystrophy his mother, Jessica Tufts, described as a progressive disease with no cure.

Tufts said you can never tell how long someone with DMD will live and the disease does not progress the same way for everyone, but most people with DMD live to their mid-20s to early 30s.

Teagan got out of his wheelchair and walked over to the fire truck for his third ride-along, and Tufts explained Teagan can, for now, still walk short distances.

Teagan was most excited about his return to the fire station next year, when he will have his new power wheelchair. Tufts said the wheelchair will "give him more independence" because for the most part, he currently has to have someone push him wherever he goes.

Teagan's wish was to go to Florida, meet Mickey Mouse, and pet a shark, Tufts said. His wish was fulfilled in 2006 on his sixth birthday.

Teagan, whose parents are separated, got to bring both sides of his family to Florida with him.

"It brought us all together," Tufts said.

Sanborn said the fire department likes to do what it can for the community, and working with Make-A-Wish is just one way they can do that.

"It's a great organization and we enjoy doing whatever we can for them... (It's) the fire department just giving back to the community, anyone we can assist. It's nice to let them be able to come in here and have some fun," Sanborn said.

2009 Make-A-Wish NH Raffle Calendars are available at many credit unions throughout the state and proceeds from them will assist the NHCUL in reaching its 2009 fundraising goal of $150,000 for Make-A-Wish Foundation of New Hampshire.

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